 Reference Base  Smuggling routes for West Bengal's rhino horn and recent ... |
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Martin, E.B., 1996. Smuggling routes for West Bengal's rhino horn and recent successes in curbing poaching. Pachyderm 21: 28-34, figs. 1-6
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World |
| Subject: |
Trade |
| Species: |
All Rhino Species |
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A Bhutanese Princess educated at Cambridge University, Dekichoden Wangchuck, aunt of the present King (the King's father's half sister) was arrested at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek airport in September 1993 with 22 Indian rhino horns, the biggest consignment of Asian horns ever intercepted in Taiwan. The Princess's 22 horns ranged in weight from less than 100 gm to over one kilo with a total weight of 14.9 kilos. Nearly all the horns would have originated from Assam, especially Manas, but a few could have come from West Bengal. In an interview carried out by Joe Loh of TRAFFIC Taipei on 20 September 1993, she claimed to have obtained these horns from Indian traders coming to Bhutan during the previous year. She explained that she owned a company (Dezany Beverages) near Phuntsholing and that businessmen periodically offered her horns. She denied buying any horns directly from poachers. This Princess had bought the horns for $6,666 a kilo on average. She said she knew there was a major demand for them in Hong Kong, so first she flew there with the horns, but she did not have 'reliable' contacts among Hong Kong's medicinal traders and after 15 days failed to find a buyer. She then went to Taipei where she was arrested after officials found the horns, using a routine x-ray machine.
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